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Meet the Eurasian red squirrel
It’s officially fall! Which means, of course, that winter is right around the corner. This has gotten me thinking about what animals need to do in order to survive the winter. Some, like many birds, migrate to warmer climates; but those animals who don’t migrate must figure out how to deal with the snow and […]
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Meet the naked mole-rat
It’s a weird one this week, folks. I was preparing for a lab presentation when I stumbled across a paper looking at pain insensitivity in mole-rats. I was absolutely taken with this paper – who knew that naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) didn’t feel pain from peppers or citrus? (more on this later). Why are they […]
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Meet the Icelandic sheep
I’ve been away the past few weeks on vacation in Iceland. Let me tell you, Iceland is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend people go and visit! While I was in Iceland, I saw a LOT of sheep. I didn’t realize before going just how many sheep are in Iceland. There are in fact more sheep […]
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Meet the common raven
I (and apparently the rest of the world) have been watching The Sandman on Netflix. I love it. It’s such a great adaptation of the graphic novels (which I also love). The acting is fantastic. It’s visually fun to watch. If you enjoy fantasy shows and books, I recommend giving The Sandman a watch! One […]
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Meet the horse
Ah, the horse. A classic staple of barnyards and beloved by children. I was no different. I, in my youth, was a horse girl. Okay, to be fair, I was only a mild horse girl. I did spend 4th grade pretending to be a horse at recess, but that’s it! Oh, and in 5th grade, […]
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Meet the vampire ground finch
I have slowly been reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula over the past few months through Dracula Daily (it’s a great site that emails you parts of Dracula on the day they occurred in the novel). If you haven’t read Dracula, I highly recommend it. It’s a pretty good read! Because of Dracula, I’ve been thinking a […]
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Meet the American black bear
My book club this month read “A Libertarian Walks into a Bear” by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. It tells the true story of how a bunch of libertarians moved to Grafton, New Hampshire, with the goal of making it a libertarian utopia. They somewhat succeeded? At the very least, they got rid of a bunch of government […]
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Meet the humpback whale
It was an exciting weekend here in Boston! I went with my partner and some friends to go whale watching and had a great time. The whale watching trip we went on took us down to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Stellwagen Bank is about 21 miles from Boston; it took us around 1.5 hours […]
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Meet the screaming hairy armadillo
It’s hot this week in Boston. And sitting in my hot apartment, sometimes the heat makes me want to scream. So what better time to introduce you to a screaming animal who thrives in the desert: the screaming hairy armadillo. The screaming hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus vellerosus) is the smallest of the hairy armadillos (there are […]
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Meet the fossa
When I was in 7th grade, I had to do a social studies project on a country. The country I picked was Madagascar. It was here that I learned about the majestic fossa, and I’ve loved them ever since. These mammals are exclusive to the island of Madagascar. Fossa look like small cougars – sleek […]